Live Review: My Chemical Romance in Salt Lake City (4/8)

You know how you forget about certain individuals you went to high school with years ago and then some random event will happen that’ll just flood you with memories? And it’s just like an “Oh yeah! Whoa, I totally forgot about so and so” moment? This was my overall feeling at My Chemical Romance (MCR), just on a much larger scale. The whole Hot Topic crowd is sort of a subculture that fades into the background after you don’t have to see them every day when you get to school. I completely forgot all about the enormous Black Parade movement that took place back during my sophomore year in high school. I guess I just assumed it was a passing phase. Turns out I was really wrong. These kids still exist – fingerless gloves, patchy, studded denim vests, and B.O. all intact.

And in theory, the individuals in attendance should have no bearing on the performance by My Chemical Romance. Unfortunately, however, they do. I’ll put it into a nice little analogy for you. So you’ve been shopping in a thrift store and let’s say you found a mint condition vinyl of Lou Reed’s Transformer and the people running the shop have no idea what it’s really worth and they give it to you for a dollar. Bonus, right? Upon exiting the store, however, you immediately feel like you need to wash your hands because some part of your psyche equates second hand items with disease spreading germs. No matter how happy you are with your new copy of Transformer, you’re still going to find the nearest rest room so you can wash the second hand musk off your hands.

Seeing My Chemical Romance is sort of like that. The band themselves played such a tight, spot-on performance that it’s a gift to be witnessing it in the flesh. But once you leave the venue, you feel an incessant need to shower off the stink of My Chemical Romance’s loyal fanbase.
Read the rest of the review here